English for Receptionists: How to Talk to Clients on the Phone

Do you handle English phonecalls at work? This lesson is just for you. In it, I teach you how to answer the phone, ask for someone's identity, tell someone that a person is not available, ask someone to wait, leave a message, and politely end a call. If you are a receptionist who handles clients, customers, or patients, you will learn English that you will actually use and hear at work from this video. If this lesson helps you, let me know in the comments. Then take the quiz to test your understanding: https://www.engvid.com/english-for-re... Get more English resources on my website: https://EnglishAlex.com More lessons like this:    • English Listening Practice: Phone Conversa...      • Ask Perfect English Questions | 20 Forms Y...   In this lesson: 0:00 English for Receptionists: Basic Office Phone English 0:54 How to answer the phone and introduce yourself 2:44 Introduce yourself when you make a call 3:33 How to ask for someone's identity 4:15 How to ask for somebody 5:12 How to confirm your identity 5:41 How to ask someone to wait 6:38 When someone is not available 7:54 How to leave a message 8:38 Say what you will do 10:16 Ask if they have more questions Transcript: Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking. You are learning English with EngVid. Today, I want to give you some practical English that you can use for speaking on the phone, specifically if you are a receptionist. So maybe you work in an office where you have patients or clients or customers coming in. Maybe you have to make appointments for your manager or somebody else in the office. So today, what I want to do is give you all of the most essential, necessary language that you need in order to answer the phone, ask for someone's identity, ask people to hold, how to take a message, and how to answer or how to finish a phone call. So let's begin by introducing yourself when you answer a call. So someone calls your office, you pick up, and I have given you three different options here. So if this were me, if I were you, I might say, "Hello, EngVid Services. Alex speaking. How may I help you?" So in this case, "Hello", your company's name, your name speaking, and always, "How may I help you?" or "How can I help you?" "May" is more polite than "can", but both are used when you answer the phone. You can also answer the phone if you are in a rush, maybe you just give the company name. So if I say, "EngVid Services, how can I help you?" Right? It depends on the pace of your office sometimes, if you have time for the full... The full thing. Finally, a little more extensive here, "Hello, you have reached" or "You've reached", you've connected with, "EngVid Services, how can I help you?" Right? So we have three options here. For now, just repeat after me, "How can I help you?" Okay? And let's do more polite, "How may I help you?" Good. Make sure you really say that "h", "h". I know it's tough in some languages. I have taught many French speakers who have a tough time with the "how", so it's not "ow", but "how", "how". "How may I help you?" for example. Okay, so this is if someone calls you. If you call someone, you could say, "Hello, this is your name from your company." For example, "Hello, this is Alex from EngVid Services. How are you doing today?" Right? So you can introduce yourself, you can ask how the person is doing if you want to be a little more personal. You could also say, "Hi, I'm calling from EngVid Services." Maybe you are returning a call, for example. "Hi, I'm calling from EngVid Services. You left a message for us?" for example. All right, so here we go, introducing yourself when you answer a call, introducing yourself if you make a call. And now let's move on to asking for someone's identity. So you could use some of these when you are making or receiving a call. In this case, if you are calling someone, you could say, "Is this..." and you say the person's name, for example, or the office, the company. "Is this Dr. Wagner's office?" for example. Or, "Am I speaking to Emma?" for example. Or, "Who am I speaking to?" If someone calls you, you can use this. Right? So, "Who is calling?" or "Who am I speaking to?" if you don't know their name. Now, if you call someone, you have to ask, usually. Right? So you call them, you say, "Hello, this is Alex from EngVid Services." And they say, "Oh, hi." And then you can say, "Is ___ available?" So, you are asking for a specific person. Let's imagine this person's name is Fred. Right? So, "Is Fred available?" "Is Fred there?" "May I speak with Fred, please?" Right? So, you have multiple options. "Is ___ available?" So, let's slow this word down a little bit. I know it's also a challenge for some speakers. "Available." Okay. And let's try, "Is Fred available?" Okay. Thank you very much. And, of course, you can also confirm your identity. So, "Alex speaking", "This is Alex." So, if someone calls you and they ask for you, maybe you can say, "Yeah, this is Alex. This is me." […]